{"id":34765,"date":"2024-08-20T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-20T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/updates-www.mccdn.io\/vitals\/?p=34765"},"modified":"2025-11-18T20:16:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T20:16:22","slug":"clinical-trial-may-help-improve-outcomes-for-colorectal-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/updates-www.mccdn.io\/vitals\/clinical-trial-may-help-improve-outcomes-for-colorectal-surgery\/","title":{"rendered":"Clinical trial may help improve outcomes for colorectal surgery","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

Early symptoms of colorectal cancer can be subtle, so much so that you might be inclined to ignore them. That\u2019s what happened to 44-year-old Chad Smith.<\/p>\n

He noticed blood in his stool for a few months but thought the culprit was a hemorrhoid, or some other mild problem, that would likely resolve on its own. Then one day in September 2022, his symptoms escalated.<\/p>\n

A commercial plumber, Smith was maneuvering through a crawl space beneath a restaurant when a pipe pushed against his stomach.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few minutes later when I got out of that crawl space, I threw up and there was a lot of blood,\u201d Smith says. \u201cI knew something wasn\u2019t right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith went to a MultiCare Indigo Urgent Care<\/a> and received a referral for more testing. Ultimately, the week before he turned 45, Smith was diagnosed with colorectal cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHalf of the patients I treat for this disease now are less than 50 years old,\u201d says Laila Rashidi, MD, FACS, FASCRS, a board-certified colorectal surgeon<\/a> at MultiCare. \u201cWhile we don\u2019t know exactly why colon cancer rates are increasing among younger adults, this disease is highly treatable if it\u2019s detected early.\u201d<\/p>\n

A history with cancer<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This was not the first time Smith and his family dealt with cancer. Before Smith\u2019s own experience, his son was diagnosed with a neuroblastoma in his spine at the age of 1. He received treatment for this rare cancer at MultiCare Mary Bridge Children\u2019s<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was a difficult time for Smith and his wife as they balanced caring for a child in the hospital with the needs of their older son.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a religious man,\u201d Smith says. \u201cBut I remember one day driving home from the hospital saying, \u2018All right God or whoever, if you\u2019re out there, spare my son and you give me the cancer.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Five years later, with his youngest son healthy and the cancer in remission, Smith was facing his own diagnosis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d make that same prayer or wish or whatever you want to call it 1,000 times over to make sure he\u2019s OK,\u201d Smith says. \u201cThat\u2019s just what it means to be a dad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Early symptoms of colorectal cancer can be subtle, so much so that you might be inclined to ignore them. That\u2019s what happened to 44-year-old Chad Smith. He noticed blood in his stool for a few months but thought the culprit was a hemorrhoid, or some other mild problem, that would likely resolve on its own. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,79,103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancer","category-profiles-stories","category-research"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nClinical trial aims to make colorectal cancer surgery safer- MultiCare Vitals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A colorectal cancer survivor sees a clinical trial as an opportunity to benefit \u201cthe greater good\u201d while potentially improving his surgical outcome.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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